VincentGuerin

Same old same old and the results of running everything in society as a vehicle for profit rather than the benefit of the people who live in the society. A transport system is not a vehicle for profit. It's a public service. A house is not an investment opportunity. It's a fucking home for someone to live in. University courses are not an opportunity to skim as much money off the population as possible. They are for education and public development and should be accessible. Amazing that we put up with this shite. But we do, and we will continue to do so. We've got the world backwards and upside down.

I don't think training will come into it much. Rangers won't suddenly be doing anything madly different from normal and they've already played Hearts four times this season. Just about resting up and playing again. Probably a session this afternoon to loosen up. I think Hearts being half a team from fully-fit first-choice gets Rangers off the hook here. Hope I'm wrong.

St Johnstone down, for me. A boring club that arouse no passions and don't even have the decency to be a top-class away day like Inverness.

Terrifying that it's that long ago. I mind finding out on the news on the Sunday that Chelsea had won the CL. Completely passed me by. Back to Tynecastle after the game for hours waiting for the team coming back then just general bevvying in Gorgie before an all-nighter at a party at my mate's. One of the best days of my life.

I think Hibs and Aberdeen would both struggle to avoid the top 6 next season. Both were utter shite this season yet were a baw hair from top 6. Both clubs have the budgets to easily improve that relative to the sides who have edged them out this season. Add in that Hearts are going to have a lot of travel and fixture congestion up to Christmas at least, and I think one or both of Aberdeen and Hibs will qualify for Europe next season.

And another one was a 3-0 pasting at Tynecastle. So, maybe strolled it for 8 matches...

Always amazes me to remember that we scudded them 5-1 in a cup final (and 4/4 that season) and they kept Fenlon on for another year and a bit.

The government could easily stop this by tweaking the law slightly. Simply rule that the law does not apply on football pitches in senior football stadiums on the day of a game. Let fans know pitch invasions are fine, but the players are allowed to batter you. With the cloak of the law removed, these wee bams would soon tire of getting the f**k knocked out them by professional athletes and it would stop. It would also provide a fun spectacle as boring games could be livened up by gang disputes being settled on the pitch.

The media coverage of this is maybe peak Scottish fitba media. All the talk of Rangers and how tired they'll be and what a huge effort they'll need and how they're heroes who are up against it. Hearts are going to be massively under-strength on Saturday through players missing and important players being miles off match-sharp, if they can play at all. But you wouldn't know it. It's a shame for Hearts. A whole load of important injuries at precisely the wrong time. At full pelt with Beni and Devlin fit and Halkett and Souttar and Smith fully fit, I'd really fancy us on Saturday. With what we're likely to field, it's a long-shot.

It's a strange one, because so many people said exactly this at the time. It's not even wise-after-the-event stuff. Such a daft move. I'm all for it.

People get awfully worked up about manager appointments, but basically we just don't know. Might be great, hopefully he's shite. We can go back and forward about his record all we want, but in reality the most important thing is player recruitment. Hibs' has been shite of late and that's why they are rubbish. Get that right and life is easier for any coach. Four years, though? Bold.

The Supercup organisation was always quite odd. I get the idea that teams in the UEFA Cup hadn't won anything while teams in the CWC were supposedly trophy-winners, and that UEFA seemed to be guided by that. But the difference in quality between the UEFA Cup and the CWC every year was massive. The CWC had the odd Big Beast in it, but was generally the weakest of the three tournaments by far, while the UEFA Cup was, in reality, usually the strongest, certainly in terms of depth. In both the EC and the CWC it wasn't uncommon for teams to have at least a couple of near gimmies along the way. In the UEFA Cup this was much rarer if you wanted to go deep in the tournament. UEFA cutting it out of the Supercup at the expense of the CWC winners is a weird one, really. *** ETA - This is not a criticism of the CWC, which I absolutely fucking loved.

Twenty20 is good fun. I've been to the T20 World Cup a couple of times, and it's a really fun thing to go along to. Australia has the Big Bash competition, which is basically the same thing.

Agree with this. There's a real performative aspect to it now, probably made worse by social media and the need for videos, selfies etc. Hugely over-done.

Couldn't have gone much better last night. I'd maybe have hoped for Eintracht's equaliser to be a bit later, but that's being greedy. All set for Saturday now. Still second favourites, but as good a chance as we'll get against them.

Baseball's not bad, to be honest. But not a patch on the cricket. Were you watching the IPL? It's a much shorter form of cricket. The purists hate it, but I enjoy the full-fat test format and the shorter ones. Room for both, for me.

I mean, it was pretty poor. But ultimately, we're absolutely fine. We've cruised to third, we're off to Hampden on Saturday, we'll be watching our team play in Europe at least right up until Santa's getting ready to do his stuff. What did we lose? A closed-door season that will be memorable to pretty much nobody? The best revenge is living well, and Hearts have responded to what happened in the best possible way.

Agree. Saturday was of no consequence at all. Just a fixture to fulfill and some players to get a run around. I'd have thought the same if we'd won 6-0.

I like this aspect of it. It's very gentlemanly. You either win or you don't win. The flip side would be saying that we'll just wipe out a big chunk of the competition and call it as it lies. Surely no Scottish football fans would be in favour of that... I like that it goes on a long time. It has its twists and turns and the match is a long story. People say it's boring, but it's no more boring than a hell of a lot of football matches. A lot of time on a football pitch is people chucking throw-ins up the touchline while people head the ball back and forward etc. A lot of people in Scotland simply don't like it as it has English connotations. It's a great game and, for me, the best day out spectator sport by a mile. I'm looking forward to quite a bit of it in the coming weeks.

Aye, the selection issue is very tricky here. It's a shame we've got so many struggling as it could end up really taking away from the occasion, but I can see this causing us big problems. Obviously Beni is out, but also Devlin, Souttar, Halkett, Smith all short of fitness as well is a real problem. I don't see how they can all do 90 and we're quite badly weakened by this. Also, how is Boyce? I think at full-strength we would have a decent swing at this one, but with the fitness levels being what they are, we are going to need to be both very good and very lucky on the day. Moore and Sibbick... Oh dear.

The Scottish reflex to dislike cricket is baffling. It's the perfect spectator sport.

I'm in two minds about this. I think the 'Rangers will be knackered' angle is being over-done. They haven't shown much sign of leg-weariness recently, and have generally risen well to big games. They rested their entire team at the weekend, so in reality their first-team are playing two games in a week after having a decent rest. It's their last 90 minutes of the season and I think they'll be fine physically. There is the possibility that they'll be a bit mentally done in if Seville goes badly for them. This is probably our best hope. If they win on Wednesday, I think we're fucked as the wave will just carry them through. So, I think we're a relative long-shot here. But at the same time, we're capable of beating them one-off and I do think we're the kind of team that has a big performance in us at some point. We just need everything to go right. Really looking forward to the day. After all the covid shite it's an amazing feeling to be going to the cup final in a big day out with a big group of folk I really like.

Willie Miller isn't actually knowledgeable. He tells the listener little about the game that you don't already know. His playing career was in an era now so long ago that he has nothing to offer in terms of technical expertise, and he was soon emptied out of being a coach (about thirty years ago). His technical knowledge doesn't extend beyond stuff we know ourselves, like that the defender was caught on the wrong side, or the attacker held the ball too long so his team-mate was caught offside. There's nothing he has to offer that illuminates, and certainly nothing befitting the status he seems to have. His views on the game are a mile out of date, and even the things he says about 'mentality' etc etc are based on his experiences decades ago. He really has nothing to offer in terms of actual useful expertise. Add in that he doesn't do basic research, knows very little about the teams he's watching, has no enthusiasm for the game, and is an inarticulate mess, and we have a fucking weird choice for a pundit. He's really fucking dreadful.

Surprised at the fuss about the Souness thing. It's fairly obvious most people want Rangers to lose. They're a horrible football club supported - generally - by deranged bigots. Who the f**k would want them to win? That said, I've been surprised at my own general lack of giving a f**k. The whole run has more or less passed me by. Might watch the final, might not.